Can't believe I haven't mentioned this place, since it's the first pizza place we went to here, and it remains on top. A Little Pizza Heaven is on a pot-holed street in a blue collar neighborhood, and we usually walk to it. It's often too crowded to get a table, so if that's the case, we take it as a sign and eat at the greek diner down the block. One time we went there and it was full of kids from the University of Rochester's men's and women's cross country teams, on their way to the conference championship somewhere in New Jersey: They'd read about it on yelp and booked the place for two hours. They were almost done so we got a large pizza to go. Last night we got a good table outside the breeze-zone when the door open and had a great pie. There are a few reviews from NYers on some of the sites that call this the only good pizza in the region. I won't say "only" but it is the best.
Spencer: http://www.spencerannarbor.com/ This place is tight. The tables are cafeteria/lunchroom style, so you're forced to mingle. You order at the counter and take a hand made (as in I could have made it) sign that's linked to your order back to the table. The food is simple enough--small plates so you get more dishes than people eating and share. We had a couple of salads (one of which was made with nasty, nasty beets but I ate them anyway and kinda liked it, despite the revulsion rising up from my inner 7 year old) the porchetta and the cioppino, both of which were delicious (great crackling on the porchetta). We came in under $100 for the two of us and had a great time joking about food envy with our neighbors. Fun place.
That's my favorite Portlandia skit. Excellent. What really bugs me is that I didn't get any props from my wife for eating the beets without complaints. What the hell?
A local upscale tacqueria uses a diced beet relish as a garnish, and you should see what people say about it on yelp. (They don't like it.)
I drove past a place today touting itself as having the "Best Burritos in San Diego" on a big sign. I was in Spokane, WA at the time.
There's not necessarily a falsehood being told there. Still, they need to say something about the wait time for delivery
This place won notoriety when the chef beat Bobby Flay in the pad thai throwdown. We finally tried the place (second visit last night) and it is really good. Sure enough, the pad thai is good - had it with fried soft shell crab (to die for) instead of the usual shrimp or chicken. The sauce does have a unique je-ne sais-qua. Quite a few appetizers that are unique, like a carefully crafted combo of little bites sitting on a circle of raw collard leaf. The chef came out to make sure we understood to cram the whole thing in our mouths at once, so as to get the combination of flavors. The curries and stuff - all the sauces taste homemade, not from a jar or 55 gallon drum. The interesting thing is that this place is located in a very ho-hum looking strip mall, off in the corner with the lights in the sign burnt out. And the strip mall is basically at the end of the runway by Dulles airport. Funny thing is we already make the journey there semi-regularly to go to a couple of other great restaurants in the same strip mall! Never even noticed this place, much less realized it was that Thai Basil. Restaurant gets some one star reviews on Yelp because they don't split checks at lunch time. http://thaibasilchantilly.com/